Friday, July 11, 2008

This blog will be devoted primarily (but not exclusively) to my views on subjects related to “Lifetime Finance”. By this I mean the financial decisions that one must make over the course of a lifetime.

For most of us income is not aligned nicely with spending over the course of a lifetime.

Early in our careers it seems sensible to spend more than we earn. We typically borrow money via credit cards, mortgages and the like.

Later it seems better to spend less than we earn. We save, on our own and/or via an employer-sponsored retirement plan.

In most cases we also have to decide how to invest such savings.

While working, we may be concerned that disability or death might cause economic hardship for our family and may purchase insurance that will provide payments if we are disabled or die.

With luck, at some point we will retire and find that our financial situation has changed radically. We may choose to purchase an annuity -- an insurance contract that will provide payments as long as we live.

After retiring, we may also keep some of our accumulated savings, investing it to provide some or all of our spending during the “golden years”.

These are my main subjects: Borrowing, Saving, Investing, Insuring and Spending.

To find a post on a particular subject, check the archive list (at the bottom of the right-hand column). To find the subjects for a particular month, just click on the header for the month.

I welcome your comments, although I am not planning to show them on the blog. I may not be able to answer you directly, but be assured that I will appreciate suggestions, information, reactions, references and the like.